football

Fun facts from our shared experience: 1Â – Wham-O, the hula-hoop people, manufactures its first “Pluto Platter” on Jan. 13, 1957. The company later changes the name to Frisbee. 2Â – TheÂ U.S. Supreme CourtÂ rules in 1984 that taping on home VCRs does not violate copyright laws. Soon, videotape changes the way we consume entertainment, although we’ll never learn to set the clock on those damned machines. 3Â – Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” tops the Billboard charts on Jan. 13, 1962. Later that year, …

Maybe this is what President Obama needs to get his way with Congress – scads of football legends lined up behind him. These players were a bit past their peak bench-pressing days – and more than 4o years past their first of back-to-back Super Bowl wins – but still in possession of the record for an undefeated season and postseason. (They remain the only undefeated team in NFL history.) So why now honor the 1972 Miami Dolphins? Related: America’s Top …

When defensive end David “Deacon” Jones, who died on June 3 at age 74 in Southern California, joined the Los Angeles Rams in 1961 as an obscure 14th-round pick out of Mississippi Valley State, it was the derring-do of quarterbacks, running backs and receivers that put fans in the seats and kept them glued to the TV set. Jones helped to change that by making defense just as exciting. At 6 foot 5 and 270 pounds, Jones was an imposing …

“YOLO,” mom said to me last week after announcing that she and my father were going to the Superbowl in New Orleans. I held the phone in my hand in silence. “Are you serious?” I asked her. She laughed, “Yes.” Not only could I not believe that my mother said YOLO, short for you only live once, but that she and Dad (who put off back surgery for a week) were trekking it to New Orleans, on a bus for …

The Sabols – father Ed and son Steve – did for pro football what Cecil B. DeMille did for Biblical epics. Beginning in 1962, the Sabols’ film studio, NFL Films, essentially created the modern highlight film, with its slow-motion ballet of long bombs spiraling into receivers’ hands and the tumult of muscular giants colliding at the line of scrimmage, all set to majestic orchestral music. The elder Sabol, now 94, was the visionary who turned clips of NFL action into …